Cubahttp://livingchurch.org/taxonomy/term/640/all
enCuban Change Helps Churcheshttp://livingchurch.org/cuban-change-helps-churches
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>By Gary G. Yerkey</p><p>President Obama’s initiatives for improved relations with Cuba will include more opportunities for religious leaders to visit the island nation. The president’s plan immediately launches discussions about restoring diplomatic relations, which were severed in 1961.</p><p>“I do not believe we can keep doing the same thing for over five decades and expect a different result,” the president said, referring to the longstanding U.S. policy of seeking to isolate the island nation. “Moreover, it does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse.”</p><p>The president said the United States can do more to support the Cuban people and to promote American values through engagement. “After all,” he said, “these 50 years have shown that isolation has not worked. It’s time for a new approach.”</p><p>A fact sheet issued by the White House said that U.S. engagement with Cuba will include strong support for improved human rights conditions and democratic reforms.</p><p>The White House said the United States will work with Cuba on matters of mutual concern, such as migration, countering narcotics, environmental protection, and preventing human trafficking.</p><p>A senior Obama administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said Pope Francis and the Vatican had played a key role in the negotiations between the United States and Cuba that led to the decision to improve bilateral ties.</p><p>The official said Pope Francis had personally issued an appeal thorough a letter to President Obama and to Cuban President Raul Castro “encouraging the United States and Cuba to pursue a closer relationship.” The letter also called on the two leaders to resolve the longstanding case of Alan Gross, the U.S. contractor who was imprisoned by Cuba in 2009, and the cases of three Cubans who have been imprisoned in the United States.</p><p>President Obama announced the release of Gross in a nationally televised statement at the White House at midday on December 17.</p><p>The senior administration official said Pope Francis had been aware that Obama was considering a change in the policy toward Cuba and had reached out to the president. His personal appeal had given “greater momentum” to the negotiations.</p><p>“The support of Pope Francis and the support of the Vatican was important to us,” the official said.</p><p>The steps aimed at improving relations between the United States and Cuba also include expanding travel to Cuba for family visits, professional research, humanitarian programs; removing limits on remittances that support humanitarian projects; authorizing expanded commercial sales to Cuba of certain goods and services; allowing certain financial transactions, including the use of U.S. credit and debit cards by U.S. visitors to Cuba; and initiating new programs aimed at increasing Cubans’ access to access modern telecommunications.</p><p>The predominant religion on the Caribbean island is Roman Catholicism, with an estimated 65 percent of the population of 11 million. But other churches and religions and religions also can be found in Cuba, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism.</p><p>According to Episcopal News Service, the Episcopal Church in Cuba is an autonomous diocese of the Anglican Communion under the authority of the Metropolitan Council of Cuba, whose members include Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The council has overseen the workings of the Cuban church since it separated from the U.S.-based Episcopal Church in 1967.</p><p>Its origins in Cuba date to 1901, and today the church comprises 46 congregations and missions serving about 10,000 members. Last February, the Episcopal Church’s budget allocated $106,000 to the church in Cuba.</p><p>“I give thanks for the release today of prisoners held by Cuba and the United States,” Bishop Jefferts Schori said before the president’s announcement. “The return of Alan Gross and the remaining three of the Cuban Five to their homes will bring great rejoicing to their families and their nations. This action also opens the door to regularized relations between these two countries for the first time in 50 years. The Episcopal Church rejoices with these families and we have deep hope for the possibilities of reconciliation and exchange between the divided parts of the Church and humanity.”</p><p>The Vatican, meanwhile, issued a statement that Pope Francis wanted to express his “warm congratulations” to the governments of the United States and Cuba for the “historic decision” to establish diplomatic relations, “with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history.”</p><p>It confirmed that the pope had written letters to Presidents Obama and Castro inviting them to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest and to initiate “a new phase in relations” between the two countries. It said that the Vatican in October had received delegations from the United States and Cuba and had provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on “delicate matters.”</p><p><em>Image: President Barack Obama talks with President Raúl Castro of Cuba from the Oval Office on December 16. • Pete Souza/White House, <a href="http://is.gd/w6cwLt">via Flickr</a></em></p><p><em>TLC on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TLC.Covenant">Facebook</a> </em>¶<em> TLC on <a href="https://twitter.com/CovenantTLC">Twitter</a> </em>¶<em> TLC’s <a href="http://livingchurch.org/rss.xml">feed</a> </em>¶<em> TLC’s weblog, <a href="http://livingchurch.org/covenant/">Covenant</a> </em>¶<em> <a href="https://sub.livingchurch.org/sub/?p=LCM&amp;f=paid">Subscribe</a></em></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/foreign-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">foreign policy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trade-embargo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trade embargo</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/diplomacy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">diplomacy</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Wed, 17 Dec 2014 19:54:32 +0000Web Editor1852 at http://livingchurch.orgBetter Togetherhttp://livingchurch.org/better-together
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p align="left">An Experience of Cuba</p><p align="left">By E.P. Licursi and Michael A. Bird</p><p>For the past six years the youth groups of San Andres, Yonkers (Iglesia Memorial de San Andres), and Christ Church, Bronxville, have found that we are better together. Our young people meet every Monday night. We have traveled to the monastery at Taizé in the spirit of reconciliation and trust. We have met and worked with those in need in New York City and across the nation. Our kids long to be challenged and tested. They want to engage their faith. They want love to be active, not passive.</p><p>The Rt. Rev. Griselda Delgado Del Carpio, Bishop of Cuba, invited us in August to expand our understanding of “better together.” This was a gift greater than any of us could have imagined. As a mixed group, ranging from ardent capitalists to crypto-communists, the young people had high hopes for the trip. They wanted to see American cars from the 1940s and ’50s and experience the culture of the Buena Vista Social Club. They wanted to pose in front of Che Guevara murals and step back into the world of Hemingway. They wanted to ask about universal medical care and the education system in Cuba. And they were able to do it all. But what most profoundly affected them was the extraordinary generosity and spirit of the Cuban people.</p><p>Bishop Griselda arranged for us to work on a sustainable agriculture farm operated by the parish of Santa Maria la Virgen to serve the small village of Itabo. Each day we woke at around dawn and began work on the farm, directed by a group of experienced and gracious laborers. Over several days we planted banana, plantain, and coconut trees in fields of yucca and sweet potato, painted and varnished the church interior, and dug holes for new fence posts. The work was engaging and at times very difficult, made more so by the August heat. But it was always balanced by great conversation with our brothers and sisters from Itabo, and meals prepared by dedicated parishioners with ingredients grown and raised on the adjacent farm. As the days passed, it became apparent that any work we accomplished would be matched and likely surpassed by the Christ-inspired hospitality of our hosts. We definitely learned a lesson that many of us had not known: how to accept gifts from others. We spent our evenings visiting with the parish’s children and teenagers, playing games on the beach, dancing and sharing music, joining in bilingual Bible study, and walking and talking in the village.</p><p>The church in Itabo is partnered, through a decades-old program of the Diocese of Florida, with St. Mark’s Church in Jacksonville. We were the beneficiaries of that relationship, and our experience proved to us that parish and diocesan mission initiatives in other parts of the world are making a difference. Our young people, Cuban and American, were transformed by this time in communion.</p><p>As Christians we are committed to loving our neighbor, and we do important work in our local communities. But expanding our definition and experience of the body of Christ can only bring us closer in line with God’s hope for humanity. It can stretch us in new ways. One of our young people said she was no longer interested in being a “comfortable Christian,” but wanted always to remember that the kingdom of God has not been fully realized. As she said, “Love sees what is needed, and responds.”</p><p>Bishop Griselda and the people of her diocese are doing great things in the name of Jesus. They are responding to the spiritual and physical needs of the Cuban people while celebrating the unique beauty of their culture. Their vision is expansive. The people of San Andres and Christ Church hope to overcome the real obstacles of blockades and embargoes to support their growing diocesan youth ministry. We hope to expand the union of our two New York churches to include parishes in Cuba and even elsewhere. Why? Because our young people have demonstrated and experienced that we are truly better together.</p><p><em>E.P. Licursi is a recent graduate of Columbia University and one of the young adults from Christ Church who traveled with us to Cuba. The Rev. Michael A. Bird is rector of Christ Church.</em></p><p><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/109119006/An-Experience-of-Cuba" style="margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block; text-decoration: underline;" title="View An Experience of Cuba on Scribd">An Experience of Cuba</a><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="0.758364312267658" data-auto-height="true" id="doc_73514" src="http://www.scribd.com/embeds/109119006/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;access_key=key-2l6v573m2wgg87cn85nn" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" width="100%"></iframe></p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cuba" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cuba</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/short-term-missions" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">short-term missions</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/episcopal-church" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Episcopal Church</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anglicanism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anglicanism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Fri, 05 Oct 2012 19:01:00 +0000Douglas LeBlanc482 at http://livingchurch.org